7 News Belize

Yohnny Shut Down By CITCO
posted (January 26, 2016)
And that type of municipal regulation may also be affecting Yohnny Rosado in a new business venture. If you watch the news with any regularity, you'll know Rosado as a stanch and outspoken defender of local tour operators. Well, tonight he is back in the news but this time he is wearing a different hat. Rosado has a tire shop on the Northern Highway which he owns and operates along with his son. The business just opened last year but today, personnel from the City Council swooped in and told them to close business or else. Yohnny explained:

Yohny Rosado Jr - Econo Tires Shop
"Basically, they came in as though we are criminals. We are not criminals. I was right there standing up by the shop, and they came and asked me who the owner is. I told them that the owner went to do a little errand. They then told me that they needed to talk to him. I told them that wasn't a problem, and I sent him a text message saying that he needed to come this side because it looked like they wanted problems. So, he ended up calling, and I told him the situation. After that, they started to tell us that we needed to close this, we don't have that, a lot of thing with them.

Mike Rudon - Channel 5 News
"What is it they said that you didn't have? Explain it to us."

Yohny Rosado Jr.
"They told us that we needed a document and I told them that the person has it, and that we just don't have it with us right now."

Yohny Rosado Sr. - Econo Tires Shop
"I don't know what they say really, but you can see that obviously, it is just a pure malicious, stinking UDP hand. They are probably good UDP's, probably one or two - 10% - but 90% of them are dirty. They just want to close you down in a dirty way, and you can see. I closed it down. How would a government be so stupid to close down a business to punish a family? We are going to close the business until they give me the trade license, which is ridiculous because they know that they are ready to collect taxes. I am sorry for the Asian community, but I can see shop popping up overnight, and suddenly, a Belizean shop can't - I've been operating for a couple of months now, and I can't get trade license. I have a shop open, and I am pretty sure that we're going to have a problem in the future. So, please just accept my money, give me a hand written - because this is not a real City Council receipt. They give you a computerized thing, but they just gave me this to show that they are not dragging their feet. At no time did they tell me to close the business down. So, it's just pretty obvious that because we're making noise on the television, they are now saying, 'Rosado making noise? I think he has a business up the Northern. Close him down.'"

ECONOC TIRES has been operating without a trade license for about 8 months. But it is not like he hasn't been trying to get licensed. According to Rosado, in December he got a receipt from the City Council showing that he has paid for his the trade license inspection. From then they told him it should take about two weeks for him to get his trade license but that never came. But with $90 thousand dollars invested, Rosado says he had to begin selling. The mayor told us he knows nothing about the case.

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